Program Manager: Level 1

Program Manager: Level 1

Remote

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Position Overview:
We’re looking for an Associate Program Manager who is energized by big challenges and passionate about making learning accessible and effective for everyone. As a member of our Product organization, you’ll be part of a technical Program team dedicated to creating digital learning solutions that revolutionize classrooms and empower students to reach their full potential. The ideal candidate will have strong organizational and communication skills, an interest in working in an Agile software development environment, high aptitude for learning technical processes and a deep passion for program or project management excellence. This is an entry-level position that will work under the direct guidance of a Program Manager and support all aspects of planning, roadmap development, delivery, collaboration and team engagement for a technical program. This is an exciting opportunity for someone interested in starting their program management career in the tech industry.

Key Responsibilities:
• Program Management: You’ll support the delivery of cross-functional initiatives by assisting with the planning, tracking, and reporting of key workstreams. This includes helping to monitor timelines, flag emerging risks, and escalate blockers to keep projects on schedule. You’ll work closely with program managers and team leads to uphold efficiency and transparency across efforts, ensuring alignment with strategic product and business priorities while gaining exposure to the end-to-end delivery process.
• Team Development and Well-being: You’ll help foster a supportive Agile team culture by supporting onboarding, sharing learning resources and coordinating team rituals as needed (e.g. standups, sprint planning, retrospectives). You’ll also escalate team concerns to leadership, helping maintain engagement, trust, and energy across the Programs.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: You’ll support collaboration among technical, product, UX, content, data science, and vendor teams, helping maintain program roadmaps, tracking dependencies, and sharing timely updates. You’ll flag and escalate misalignments or coordination gaps, ensuring smooth visibility across initiatives and supporting healthy collaboration between partners.
• Operational Planning & Execution: You’ll support program planning by coordinating with internal teams and external partners to clarify program objectives and milestones. You’ll assist with tracking roadmaps, gathering progress data, and helping define success metrics.
• Program Success Metrics and Reflection: You’ll support the definition and tracking of meaningful metrics that illuminate team progress and impact. You’ll help collect and organize data, contribute to regular reflection sessions, and surface insights on what’s working or needs adjustment.
• Resource Management: You’ll assist in maintaining our team members’ capacity tracking and resource planning processes, supporting timely updates to resource allocations, ensuring metrics reflect current staffing and capacity, as well as maintain exception reporting.
• Communication and Engagement: You’ll support communication cadences across development teams, cross-functional stakeholders, and leadership. You’ll help clarify progress, challenges, and next steps in ways that make complex information understandable by maintaining transparency and ensuring that both the “what” and the “why” are clear.
• Process Creation and Optimization: You'll support the Program Management Community of Practice by helping to maintain and refine program-related processes. You’ll assist with identifying inefficiencies, gathering input from stakeholders, and supporting documentation of workflows and templates. You’ll also help monitor adoption and basic process metrics, contributing insights for improvement.

What can you bring to the role?
• Passion for Program or Project Management: You’re keenly interested in supporting project or program execution from start to finish. While the Program Manager owns the overall strategy, you'll support tracking key steps, ensuring follow‑through on tasks, and helping drive initiative momentum.
• Strong Communication and Collaboration Skills: You work well with others and are starting to build confidence in clear, effective communication with the goal of building strong interpersonal and collaboration skills. You'll assist in preparing updates, facilitating meetings, and working with cross‑functional peers, receiving guidance and feedback along the way.
• Outstanding Organizational Skills: You’re comfortable handling multiple tasks, keeping tracking sheets and dashboards updated, reminding stakeholders of deadlines, and helping to keep workstreams on course. You thrive on keeping things organized.
• High Reliability and Accountability: You take your responsibilities seriously. Assigned deliverables are completed on time, items you’re tracking move forward without reminders, and you show consistent follow‑through in your commitments.
• Relationship Building: You work cooperatively with teams like engineering, product, UX, content, or operations. Though the overall Program leadership manages alignment and consensus, you help foster cooperation, respond to requests, and escalate important feedback appropriately.
• Creative Problem-Solving and Innovation: You help surface issues early, suggest ways to resolve logistical or administrative challenges, and look for small improvements. You’ll sharpen your ability to break down complex tasks into clear next steps and proactively flag challenges so the Program Manager can guide you.
• Aptitude for Technology and Agile Tools: You’re enthusiastic and quick to learn key Agile tools and frameworks. With support, you'll begin learning how to use Jira and other tracking software. You’ll also become familiar with Scrum ceremonies (e.g. sprint planning, stand-ups, reviews, retrospectives) and understand how these practices integrate with digital tools. You’re eager to grow your confidence through guided use, training sessions, or mentorship, helping Agile teams run smoothly and transparently.

Qualifications:
• 0-2 years’ experience in program or project management (“0” means you’re highly interested, but haven’t done it yet)
• Strong communication skills
• Strong organizational skills
• Evidence of technical aptitude - e.g., ability to learn and understand technical processes
• Interest in learning Agile methodologies and scrum master functions
• Bachelor’s degree in Education, Business, Communication, or equivalent experience preferred; recent college grads will also be considered

Additional consideration given to candidates with any of the following:
• Experience with tools such as Jira, Confluence and/or Smartsheet
• Experience performing a scrum master function
• Understanding of Agile methodologies
• Experience in EdTech industry
• Experience working in large, highly-matrixed companies
• Experience working with software developers
• Proven track record of successfully managing complex, cross-functional projects